PJ Harvey Wins Mercury Music Prize

Hyde Park’s Grovesnor house hotel welcomed the cream of the musical crop last night for the 20th annual Mercury Music awards, which saw PJ Harvey walk away with an unprecedented second victory with her album ‘Let England Shake’, exactly 10 years on from when ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’ won PJ her first award.
Over the last two decades the Mercury Music Prize has gained prominence for its unpredictability, the award often going to new and relatively unheard of acts instead of more commercial, but no less deserving artists. Nevertheless it is seen, alongside the Ivor Novello’s as the Musicians music prize of choice, and is still to this day very much a significant feather in the cap of any artist’s career.
The 12 nominees listed last night spanned a broad range, the hotly tipped Anna Calvi and Ghostpoet stood alongside more established artists such as Tinie Tempah, Adele with her global mega smash ’21’, and 2008 winners Elbow. New dance dub step pioneers Katy B and James Blake were amongst the mix as was up n’ coming alt-indie electro pop rockers Everything Everything (my pick) and Metronomy.
After a succession of outstanding performances from all 12 nominees, the crowd waited with baited breath, as a slightly inebriated Jules Holland ascended to the stage and, after what seemed like an age, ( going through the history, rattling on about the token £20,000 prize) – it was PJ Harvey’s name that was read aloud to rapturous applause.
PJ Harvey is always very much been the darling of the Mercury Music Prize and, having won once before and been nominated a record four times, she is loved by the industry for her innovation, originality and approach. ‘Let England Shake’, her eight solo record, was a protesting audio storyboard of visceral narratives about England in times of conflict from World War I to the more recent fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and, as a body of work it really was a genuine stand out, in fact your very own BBMLive.com were fans when we reviewed it early in the year – http://bbmlive.com/music-news/pj-harvey-let-england-shake.html

Many will feel that she doesn’t deserve to win it twice, especially in the wake of such a strong list of upcoming talent and the emergence of two global stars in Adele and Tinie Tempah but, with a cabinet full of multi-platinum Brits and Grammies, I’m sure they’ll get over it. Nevertheless it is PJ Harvey who once again sits upon the throne as our quirky, mysterious and quintessentially British flagship artist for another year – God save the Queen and Let England Shake.
By James Stapleton
Twitter.com/realJstapleton